Posts Tagged 'Fundraise'

On Tuesday, Summer posted "Giving: Better Than Receiving," a blog about all of the organizations SoftLayer has supported in 2011, and I'm one of the lucky SLayers on the new Charity Committee. We recently began this initiative to oversee charitable donations at SoftLayer and (more importantly) to encourage all employees to step-up and make a DIFFERENCE. Whether by volunteering or financially supporting a local charity, the idea is that we all participate in our community and try and help in some way.

One of the best examples of an organization that does amazing things for communities and people who deserve a little extra love is the TV show, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." I've always loved the show, and I'm only quasi-embarrassed that I've shed a tear or two when the crowd shouts, "Move that bus!" and the homeowners see their brand new home. If you aren't familiar with the show, the EM:HE team finds deserving families who, for one reason or another, need a new home, and over the course of one week, the EM:HE crew and a slew of local volunteers set to work to rebuild or remodel the home.

You can imagine the amount of supplies, coordination and man-hours that go into building a new home or completely remodeling it in just one week. That's where the community and local businesses get involved: Supplies are donated by companies, and the work force is made up of show employees, people from the sponsoring companies, and an average of 2,500 volunteers every episode.

With that generous involvement, the challenge becomes coordinating the massive amount of work, people and projects to get everything done in a short period of time. That's where the Internet comes in. How can the show maintain an online presence for vendors, sponsors and fans of the show? Each of them plays an important part in the show's success, so they need to be kept "in the know" with the most up-to-date information. And that's where we come in.

This philanthropic show definitely meets the requirements of SoftLayer's Charity Committee, and when the show was nominated as a prospective organization to support, we immediately set plans in motion to figure out how we could help support the show and the deserving families getting new homes.

We've donated $25,000 in free hosting services this season to support the show's online presence. We'll be providing a place for vendors who donate to gain some visibility and a place for fans to watch videos and keep up with the show ... And that's no small task: The site receives about 6.8 million monthly impressions.

As Summer mentioned in her post, this is just one of the many ways we're reaching out to support organizations that are doing great work. Let us know what charities matter the most to you, and we'll get them on our radar. We're always looking for ways to get involved, and the first step is learning about who's doing this kind of amazing work for such a great cause.

The holiday season for many of us is a time for giving and reflecting back on what we are thankful for, and this year has been an awesome one for SoftLayer. As a result of that awesomeness, we've been able to help several organizations raise money and awareness ... So many that we recently created a Charity Committee to find groups and organizations we can support in the future. Why would we need a committee to do that? Here's a snapshot of a few of the organizations we've helped this year:

Carter BloodCare – Carter BloodCare is a blood center who delivers 330,000 units of lifesaving blood components each year. This year the organization setup a mobile blood drive outside of our headquarters so that any employee who wished to donate could. To learn more about Carter BloodCare, visit http://carterbloodcare.org/.

Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center - The SLayers in Dallas weren't the only ones with an opportunity to donate blood. In Houston, the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center set up shop in one of our conference rooms to accept donations. The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center serves the largest medical campus in the world, so they're always grateful for people who "Commit For Life." To learn more about the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, go to http://giveblood.org/.

American Heart Association – American Heart Association's mission is "To build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke." This year SoftLayer split up into teams to compete to see who could raise the most money. The Marketing team alone raised over $7,500! To learn more about the American Heart Association, make your way over to http://heart.org/.

North Texas Food Bank - The North Texas Food Bank is a nonprofit organization on a mission to create a hunger-free community. They currently operate 1,146 feeding programs around North Texas, and our Dallas office brought in nonperishable food items to donate. Check them out at http://ntfb.org/.

Houston Food Bank – Like the blood drives, our Houston crew wasn't going to be left behind when it came to supporting a local food bank. The Houston Food Bank is the largest Feeding America food bank in the nation. They currently feed around 865,000 people each year. Learn more at http://houstonfoodbank.org/.

Captain Hope's Kids – Captain Hope's Kids is an organization that helps homeless children to live as close to a normal life as possible. Aside from monetary donations they collect items like coats, toys, school supplies, and even baby formula. Visit their website at http://captainhope.org/.

Tour De Pink – Tour De Pink is an annual bike ride in Texas that raises money for breast cancer research, education and awareness campaigns. Head over to http://www.tourdepink.org/ to get the current fundraising total for 2011. Right now, they're just a hair under $350,000 raised. SoftLayer was honored to be the presenting sponsor of Tour De Pink, and we're looking forward to next year!

Toys for Tots – The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program collects new and unwrapped toys for children who are less fortunate. The program then delivers these toys as Christmas gifts to the needy children in the community. In SoftLayer's offices, SLayers were encouraged to bring in new, unwrapped toys and gifts to give through this program. http://toysfortots.org/ has all the information you need about that program.

Community in Schools – Community in Schools is an organization that connects kids in school with mentors who can help them with problems inside and outside of the classroom. Many SoftLayer employees volunteer their time each week to help tutor and mentor kids in the Dallas area. If it's something you might like to get involved with, the Community in Schools website for the Dallas region is http://www.cisdallas.org/.

The other day someone said to me "If you can help and you are able to, then you should," and I am so grateful to be a part of a company who can help and does.